Fashion Trends – Is the Influence of Fashion Magazines Decreasing?

Fashion is a fast paced industry, which contributes to the business world as one of the largest industries. Fashion itself is a reflection of social, economic, political and cultural changes. It expresses modernity, symbolising the spirit of the times(1). With high competition it is important to change the styles, trends and brands. Fashion magazines are one way of influencing trends as they show pictures of designers, celebrities and models wearing the latest fashions. However, more and more people are using social media for wardrobe advice, inspiration, and to create new trends. There has been a rise in fashion bloggers and social media sites since 2007. Has this possibly led to a decrease of interest in fashion magazines?

In this study I will explore whether the rise in fashion bloggers has led to a decreased influence of trends from fashion magazines. I am going to find out the answer to my question by asking the public, through a questionnaire how they are influenced by fashion trends and how many magazines they buy. I can analyse this information and find out whether fashion magazines are influential on trends or if it is decreasing. The questionnaire will be based on students aged 11-19 because they will determine the future of whether these magazines are influential or if social media will take over.

I am also going to create a fashion blog and have a range of social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, to see the impact of fashion online. I have done a lot of research on this study as I have taught myself how to create a website/blog by using a website builder called WIX. I have written my articles, created videos and edited pictures for my blog and social media sites. On Instagram, I have included pictures of my outfits, visual merchandising images, images from London Fashion Week and trailers of my Youtube videos. On Facebook and Twitter I share new articles, images and videos linking to all of my accounts (Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter).

I attended London Fashion Week 2015 in March to see the Spring/Summer collection and in September to see the Autumn/Winter collection. I attended a trend catwalk in March 2015, these images were posted in every fashion magazine and these trends were shown in the designers advertisements such as Prada, Channel and Dior. Fashion Bloggers from all over the world made blogs so fans wouldn’t miss out, they got an insight into the big events, parties, catwalks and even a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes action. There were also “livestreams" of the catwalks focusing on each designer, so no matter where you were in the world you could always have the Fashion Week experience, from the comfort of your home.

For the September London Fashion Week, I went to a talk about “Becoming a Fashion Blogger”. I got to listen to the advice given from fashion blogger Alex Stedman (The Frugality), Erica Davies (The Edited) and Naomi Mdudu (The Lifestyle Edit). They gave advice on creating a blog, using social media, building a community and being unique. I even made a video of this on the “Fabuluce Fashion” Youtube account (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x54nIJ9ZND00).

In this essay i will be exploring the meaning of fashion trends, the influence of magazines, celebrities and social media over the years, how magazines have adapted to social media, the impact of bloggers and the creation of “Fabuluce Fashion”.

Fashion trends are decided by the trend forecasting companies. They predict the future of trends which will be featured on the catwalk, in the media and in the shops. Trend forecasting companies use advanced technologies and professional experts to predict what will sell in the future(1). A fashion forecaster predicts the colours, fabrics, textures, materials, prints, graphics, beauty/grooming, accessories, footwear, street style, and other styles that will be presented on the runway and in the stores for the upcoming seasons.(2) In 1937, James Laver a fashion historian described trends as, when fashion has been in for a year before it is trendy it is known as “daring”, 20years later it is “ridiculous” and in 50 years it creeps back into style(3).

Fashion trend forecast calculates as following: Season > Target Market > Consumer >Colours > Fabrics > Silhouette > Texture > Usage(4). Some of the best trend forecasting companies online are EDITD, Fashion Net, Fashion Windows, Promostyle, style.com and WGSN(5). EDITD collects data and analytics from global apparel sales in order to calculate what is selling and what isn’t. Fashion Net has a huge range of the latest fashion content including fashion films, fashion schools, retail stores and industry professionals. Fashion Windows has been around since the early 90s, it has a variety of free runway, trend and boutique reporting. Promostyl is based in Europe, Asia and North America and includes content like fashion exhibition and retail store openings and designers to watch. style.com has full runway coverage, global street style, trend forecasting reports and fashion news(5).

Marc Worth founded 1997 Worth Global Style Network (WGSN), the trend-forecasting service whose clients today include Coach, Kate Spade, H&M and Victoria’s Secret. “We don’t forecast, we don’t predict. We provide inspirations for creatives to create trends; we track trends as they evolve, but we’re not forecasters in the traditional sense”(3). WGSN is the most comprehensive global trend forecasting service available. Their content covers everything from street style accessories trends in Sao Paulo to fabric texture trends seen at a textile trade show in Taiwan(5). These websites and companies have been of great influence for the designers to create the trends which are then publicised through fashion shows and fashion magazines. However, Marc Worth also said “Social media dictates trends today. The trend emerges overnight and disappears almost as quickly”(3). Therefore, this change of technology has taken over the fashion world by influencing people in a different way through blogs and social media.

Fashion magazines are still very influential and have been for the past 400 years. The fashion plate, which is defined as a fashion drawing, engraving, or illustration that depicts the newest clothes, shoes, hairstyles, and accessories of a particular period of time(6), was considered as the first fashion magazines. This was first used in England and France during the late sixteenth century and was a wonderful way to promote fashion workshops in countries throughout Western Europe(6). Magazines have been around since 1600 where illustrations were made of the fashions in Paris. French women and designers relied on these sketches to see what was being worn and to interpret that in their designs.

Below is a timeline of the upcoming of magazines:(7)

1867, Harper’s Bazaar begins in the US, providing illustrations of European designers
1892, Arthur Baldwin Turnure founds Vogue in the US, to provide both illustrations and patterns.
1900, fashion magazines begin to feature photography.
1909, Condé Nast purchases Vogue.
1912-1925 The magazines also aimed to establish fashion as an art alongside painting, sculpture, and drawing. According to the magazine's first editorial, "The clothing of a woman is a pleasure for the eye that cannot be judged inferior to the other arts.”
1920’s, American fashion magazines expand content to feature journalism articles about women’s suffrage and socialites.
1940’s, American fashion magazines feature articles about working women fashion.
1960’s, enhancements in colour printing reduce cost and improve both quantity and quality of magazines available.
1980’s, fashion media such as cable television begin to compete with magazines
2007 Social media started to become more influential

Vogue was expressly designed to promote the superiority of French couture to an American clientele (8).The name Vogue means "style" in French (9). Vogue began in 1892, it has been described as “the world’s most influential fashion magazine”(7). It is famous as a presenter of high fashion and society, it provides reports of very popular fashion brands such as Dior, Prada, Chanel, Gucci, and its latest trends(10). Anna Wintour is currently the editor of Vogue in the US, she directed the focus towards new and accessible concepts of "fashion" for a wider audience. Wintour's influence allowed the magazine to maintain its high circulation, while staff discovered new trends that a broader audience could conceivably afford(11). Anna Wintour was also the first editor to decide to use celebrities for advertising the magazine by making them the cover, this improved sales and kept Vogue in the lead as the most successful fashion magazine.

In this graph (above) it is clear that Vogue UK has had a decline in sales since 2009, which was near the time when social media started to take over(12). Looking at this graph from a business point of view, the readership of Vogue magazine was in it’s “boom” period during 2006, it then started to go into recession during 2009-2010 because of other external factors such as the 2008 financial crisis. Therefore, people may have started looking for their fashion trend information online because it is free. Vogue did make a recovery in 2010, however since 2013 the rise of fashion bloggers and a growing population on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter has led to a decline in magazine sales.

Elle magazine is one of Vogue’s biggest rivals under Hearst magazines. Elle was founded in France in 1945. The US and UK editions were not launched until 1985. The magazine reaches over 69 million readers. There are 33 Elle websites globally, which collectively attract over 25 million unique visitors and 370 million page views per month(13).

In this graph (above) it is clear that Elle magazine UK has had a similar trend in readership to Vogue(14). With sales going into recession during 2009-2010, however they did recover from the crisis in 2011. However, since 2013 there has been a decrease in the number of readership.

To find out more information on the decline of fashion magazines, I did a questionnaire focusing on the younger generation to find out what influences them on fashion trends(15). The reason I chose this target audience is because they will determine the future as to whether magazines will go into decline or not. They are the people who have been the most influenced by social media and technology and are witnessing the change of influence from fashion magazines.

When asked about how many magazines they purchase I found that 67% of people do not buy magazines, instead they use social media sites such as Instagram to influence their style. However, the most popular magazines that they do read are Vogue, Elle and Cosmopolitan.

Cosmopolitan is also the most read magazine in the print, digital and social form with 53,723 readers compared to Glamour with 28,832 readers, Vogue with 28, 304 readers and Elle with 21,693 readers(16). Cosmopolitan is mostly read by educated women who attended or had graduated from collage. It is clear from these statistics that Cosmopolitan is the most read magazine.

Celebrities have also had a huge influence on the latest fashion trends through magazines and social media. Celebrities style became more influential from the 20th century. In 1920-30 the top style icon was Marlene Dietrich, she was one of the most fashionable women of that period when it was in high demand to wear feminine dresses. However Dietrich chose to be different with her androgynous wardrobe. She said “I dress for myself. Not for the image, not for the public, not for the fashion, not for men.(17)” She fought the stereotypical views of women’s fashion and challenged the ideas of society by having bi-sexual relationships. Therefore, her fashion style helped changed the stereotypical views of society in her time. This has inspired women to be free when it comes to fashion and to dress only to impress themselves. Marilyn Monroe is remembered for her bold red lipstick and white long flowy dress. This signature look is recreated by celebrities when they hit the red carpet such as Madonna and Christina Aguilera.

The most famous model and fashion inspiration of the 1960’s was no other than Twiggy, bright colours, shift dresses, cashmere turtle necked jumpers, A-line skirts and floral patterns made the sixties fashion. It was through Twiggy’s fun personality that made these clothes shine in the windows of shops and became staple items that every girl must have in their wardrobe. These clothes have even made a comeback now in 2015. As Louis IV states “Fashion is a mirror of history… Fashion is both a predecessor of what has taken place in larger society, and a predictor of what will take place”(18).

The main celebrities from 2015 which are the most influential to the younger generation are Kendall Jenner, Taylor Swift, Cara Delevingne and Marilyn Monroe to name a few. Kendall Jenner has been more recognisable for her modelling career this year as she models for Fashion week across the world in London, Paris, New York and Milan. She even won the teen choice award for the best model in 2015.

Another recognisable model Cara Delevingne has been noticed in the fashion world from 2012, winning model of the year at the British Fashion Awards. Her style is more tomboy, as she wears beanies, jeans, oversized jumpers and backpacks. Whereas singer Taylor swift style is more girly with flowy dresses, floral patterned mix and match, with a touch of vintage blouses. She was even a guest editor in Glamour. The celebrities fashion can be captured at red carpet events and even by the paparazzi on the streets, which is why they normally make an effort with fashion because they are always in the public eye. There have even been TV shows made to show the latest fashions such as Fashion Police, which is where they go to the red carpet events and fashion weeks around the world promoting the latest trends.

The publicity of fashion has changed over time, it began with illustrations, books to magazines and now social media. Advertising campaigns started using celebrities to sell their brand such as in spring 2015 fashion icon Iris Apfel and model Karlie Kloss were the face of Kate Spade and Cara Delevingne for DKNY in 2012.

Social media has become more of an influence in the fashion world. Anyone can have a fashion blog and have people from all over the world access their style for free. Bloggers use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Each of these sites has succeeded because of the quality and uniqueness of their context, and they have successfully built a cult following around their areas of expertise and passion(19). The internet has allowed for the democratisation of fashion(19).

There are so many social media sites and apps to help people connect with fashion such as “Instagram”, “Hunt”, “pose” and “Pinterest”. People can post pictures of their daily outfits or look for some inspiration on how to wear a particular piece of clothing. Pose has 1million active people, with 120million images viewed per month. These images are “collections” of looks from around the web or other people’s collections and integrates social shopping into its platform(20). Instagram has recently been taken over by Facebook. It is said that "Media images help shape our view of the world and our deepest values: what we consider good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil. Media stories provide the symbols, myths, and resources through which we constitute a common culture and through the appropriation of which we insert ourselves into this culture(21).“Images can influence people more directly than words.

At London Fashion Weeks, Blogger talk Erica highlighted the definite move towards Instagram, and recognised that there are new sea of bloggers who don’t actually blog, they just have Instagram accounts. Alex pointed out that some of the best instagramers have a very distinct style, so they might always do the same pose, or photograph their outfits in the same location(22). Blogging is all about developing your “personal brand, honing in on your own style so people know what to expect from you.”(22)

Other social media sites have been used to connect people such as “Facebook” has 1 Billion active people, with the highest fashion Facebook page having 1.74Million likes. Twitter is also a very active site, during the New York Fashion Week in 2013 tweets were made using BUZZWORDS (“win”, “winner”, “buy”, “new”, “giveaway”) 671,028 tweets posted using this hashtag. This shows how people can be connected around the world during fashion events(23).

A study was conducted between 5/17/11 to 6/15/11 on Mercedes Benz fashion week attendees to examine the influence of media on fashion views, and its relationship to Mercedes Benz Fashion Week fashion week(24). The study showed a strong, positive effect of fashion related to media because it evaluated the quality of the shows and designers, people who could not attend the fashion shows could watch it live online, or keep up to date with the posts on Facebook and the tweets on Twitter by using hashtags(24).

I did a questionnaire focusing on students aged between 11-19, what influences their fashion there were a variety of results. The majority of people I questioned believed that blogs, websites and social media were becoming a more influential way for trends to be shared amongst social groups with 98% agreeing to this. The reason for this was due to hashtags, a wider audience and because it is free and easy to access. When asked what social media websites they use to influence their fashion Instagram was the most used with 75% saying they use it. Facebook was another social media influence with around 40% using it on average. However, what I found really interesting was that these students never used Blogs, Vlogs or magazines to influence their fashion, this was surprising because Blogs and Vlogs started in 2007 and have been successful since then with more and more people creating their own content and sharing it with the world online. The other influences for peoples fashion were there family and friends(14).

With the rise of the internet and social media, some magazine readerships could be seen to be declining as people could find fashion and gossip on websites online for free(25). Unfortunately, magazines simply had to adjust to this change(25). The most popular fashion magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Glamour have been successful adapting to social media. Altogether, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+, Vogue has the highest following of 19.5million followers, with Elle following closely behind with 10.9million followers. However, fashion magazines are falling behind other types of magazines on social media. For example, National Geographic has a combined total of 67million followers and ESPN with 40.3million(26).

Fashion Magazines have had to come up with different strategies to make sure the magazines survive. The first strategy is to produce interesting content and to deepen relationships with the audience. This builds on a strength that has always been at the heart of publishing: Strong print brands enjoy a trusted relationship with their audience; readers are loyal to print publications because they provide high-quality content about specific interest areas.(27) The second strategy is to gain revenue from content online, through advertisements and extra content for those who have subscribed to the magazine. The third strategy for the media company of the future is to innovate with new products and pricing models. As the pace of change continues to quicken in the digital world, as new devices for accessing printed content continue to emerge, and as new applications are developed to exploit online content(27).

Glamour magazine has adapted to social media whilst still being unique. Glamour has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Pinterest and Google+(28). Glamour was also the first women’s fashion magazine with an IPad edition(28). Glamour uses unique techniques in grabbing the reader’s attention, on Facebook they include an image with every post and use short post titles to get people wanting to click and read more. On Instagram they use behind-the-scenes images and pictures of celebrities at red carpet events to captivate the reader.

Glamour also uses GIFs, capitalise their words and use emojis to catch peoples attention.On Twitter there was a viral debate using #thedress, this was about whether a dress was blue and black or white and gold. This content reached millions of people on all social media sites as they had this debate, which also advertised Glamour’s site more as people clicked the link.

Glamour has adapted to social media very well as they understand their audience and what sort of content they want to see on each account, such as on Youtube the audience want content of a video series or behind-the-scenes action. Therefore, Glamour has been successful with the change from print to social media through their individual identity. When fashion magazines interact with their readers, it creates an essential connection which always keeps the readers coming back. Social media is, in many ways, a blessing for magazines and similar companies as they can now deal with consumers on a much more personal level(29).

However, there has been a decline in fashion magazines as people can find out information for free. High fashion magazines have created their own apps and digital sections so customers are still paying for the content by getting a digital copy of the magazine. Although, as technology advances, fashion magazines will have to keep adapting as hard copy readership falls.

The most influential social media sites are Instagram and Youtube. Youtube has been around since 2005 whereas Instagram started in 2010, the influence of photos and videos show the new fashions in a creative way, the well known Youtubers for students are Zoella and Tanya Burr who are british vloggers/bloggers who love sharing reviews on products and giving fashion and beauty tips.

Zoella has 9.5 million subscribers on Youtube, over the years she has grown, as she began her channel “Zoella280390” in February 2007, which contains videos of her revising products, collaborations with friends and giving advice. In April 2013, she hit 1 million subscribers and as of September 2015 it has received over 540 million total visits. Her second channel “MoreZoella” which includes blogs of her day-to-day life has over 3 million subscribers. Tanya Burr began Youtube in October 2009, with over 3 million subscribers and over 240 million video views. Her second channel "Tanya's Vlogs!” has over 600,000 subscribers.

Blogs are defined as personal websites. Blogs” offer consumers an almost unlimited space for self-expression on the Internet (Kozinets, 2006) (24). Readers of fashion magazines have the opportunity to voice opinions and challenge fashion critics. Brands view popular bloggers as the new journalists and influencers(24). Fashion Blogs are more day to day rather than once a month and that is why trends keep changing. Many savvy consumers now follow their own fashion rules, inspired by what they see on the fashion-animated streets, the internet, and in the live-streamed fashion shows that are becoming a staple channel for fashion lovers(1). That is why people are using young new designers as a marketing tool to get magazines off the shelves and to sell clothes. Vogue normally holds competitions to find the new designers to write about in their magazines.

In my questionnaire (14) I found that people use fashion blogs for outfit inspiration because they are interested to see the new fashions and they are interested in what people are wearing to get ideas for their own outfits. The most interesting posts are those of street style, celebrity style and the latest catwalk/designer trends. I also found out that 55% of those surveyed read blogs from retailers, celebrities and magazines.

Bloggers have also been used as a marketing tool for businesses to get more customers. For Example, a YouTuber Tanya Burr co-edit a video with Mulberry showing how the label’s bags fit into her daily life(30). Louis Vuitton is known for having the highest number of collaborations with online influencers out of all of the luxury fashion brands. The brand uses its heritage to attract new, younger consumers, choosing the right blogger with the right fan base will attract the target market(30). Celebrities and models have become a huge influence on fashion as they appear at fashion shows, awards ceremonies, premieres and their outfits are always featured on magazines, blogs and TV. Clothing stores update their pages with photos of their seasonal collections, showcasing attractive young models dressed in their fashions, thus creating images of desire in their impressionable audiences(21). However, this is changing as today more and more women of different shapes and sizes feature in magazines and blogs to fight against the social norms of what is “beautiful”. Elle magazine also, recently hired an independent blogger to “bring life” to their online blog(31). Fashion brands pay high prices to have bloggers sit in the front row at their fashion shows(31).

I decided to create a fashion blog to learn how fashion bloggers spread information through social media. My blog is called Fabuluce Fashion, I chose that name because Fashion is my interest and I wanted to add my name with a word that could be used to compliment fashion, so I mixed "fabulous" with my nickname "luce". I then set up social media websites which are most used, such as Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. I used Twitter to spread information about my blog and new articles which I have published. Instagram allowed me to post pictures of new styles, trends, favourite outfits and places. I have edited and filmed many videos to show fashion events I have attended and other videos on new looks.

Blogs are free to set up and can be about anything. It is a personal website which can be shared with the world. Some of my Instagram posts have been liked by professional photographers, young fashion designers who are starting up, fashion students, Visual merchandisers and other fashion bloggers. The people who have liked my posts on Instagram come from Australia, Paris, Britain, America and Italy. On Youtube I have had views from South Africa, UK and France. My blog page has also been viewed from people in the UK, America and Germany. This has shown me how far information can spread online. People can read my posts, comment and like from all over the world over night, whereas for magazines to start up it takes years and a lot of financial investment.

To summarise, Fashion magazines have had a decrease in sales as technology advances, however they have adapted to this change by joining social media to keep their audience up-to-date with new trends. With fashion magazines being flexible in incorporating the changes into its business, technology and marketing sectors.They could still be of influence on fashion trends.

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